Friday, October 27, 2017

"Walmart turns to robots to help solve out-of-stock issues" (WMT)

Yes, yes Amazon is the star of the day, up $130 last I saw but this is an interesting factoid at the tech/labor/business nexus.

From ZD Net:

The world's largest retailer has had a well-documented struggle with empty shelves in its stores.
Walmart is testing the use of aisle-roaming robots as a way to improve out-of-stock issues and price discrepancies in its stores.

The world's largest retailer has had a well-documented struggle with
empty shelves in its stores nationwide. A few years ago, Walmart
admitted that it was likely losing out on $3 billion in sales due to
out-of-stocks.

With an infusion of automation, however, Walmart is
hoping to keep more merchandise on its shelves by tasking robots with
repeatable, predictable jobs, like scanning shelves for out-of-stocks,
incorrect prices and mislabeling.

The nondescript robots include a
base with an attached tower equipped with cameras that scan aisles for
any of the above mentioned inconsistencies. When problems are found, the
robots alert store employees, who then restock the shelves and fix
errors.

Walmart says it's been testing the robots in a small
number of stores in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and California, and that it's
now expanding the trial to an additional 50 locations. The retailer was
quick to stress that the robots are not a blanket replacement for its
human workforce....MORE